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October 4, 2009

fabric strip burp cloth tutorial

Updated 2/16/12:I am currently hosting an "i spy" fabric charm swap! For more information, please see this post.

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Sew, Mama, Sew! is having a Scrap Buster Contest! I put my other sewing projects on hold this weekend to make a project for the contest and attempt to write my first tutorial. If ANYTHING about this tutorial is confusing, hard to follow, or just plain wrong, please let me know! So, here goes. . .

1) Gather materials. I used a fun, multicolored piece of fleece to give me lots of fabric options for the front--maybe too many fabric options.

2) Place flannel fabric on cutting mat and cut a piece 10" wide by 22" long. Since my piece was a scrap, it is only about 9-3/4" wide.

3) I like rounded corners on my burp cloths, so I use a coffee mug to round the corners. Place the mug at the corner of the fabric and trace with a pen. Cut on the line. Repeat for the other three corners.

4) To make a contoured burp cloth, find the center of each long edge (11" on this cloth). Go in 1" and make a mark. I use a small dinner plate and a pen to trace the curve.

Cut on this line, and repeat on the other side.

5) Place the flannel piece on top of the fleece fabric. Using the flannel piece as a guide, cut the back piece of the burp cloth out of the fleece fabric.

6) Using your scrap cotton, cut strips of fabric at least 10-1/2" long. The width can vary, but you will lose 1/2" in width due to seam allowances, so don't make them too skinny. If you have some pieces that are slightly shorter than 10-1/2" you can use them at the contoured part of the burp cloth. Press all the fabric strips using an iron.

7) Place your first strip (green in the picture) right side up at one end of the flannel burp cloth piece.

8) Place a second fabric strip (stripe in the picture) on top of the first strip right sides together with raw edges even. Pin in place. Stitch together with 1/4" seam allowance, back stitching at the beginning and end of the seam.

When you get the contoured part of the burp cloth, you can use some of your shorter strips.

11) After you have covered the flannel with strips of fabric, turn the piece over so the flannel is facing up. Trim the fabric strips.

12) Place your flannel and fabric strip top piece on the fleece piece, right sides together. Pin the two pieces together.

13) Stitch the pieces together using a 1/4" seam allowance, removing pins as you sew. Be sure to leave an opening on one of the short ends for turning.

14) Using the opening, turn the burp cloth right side out. Finger press the edges.

15) At the opening, fold the raw edges in and pin. This will be stitched closed when you topstitch the burp cloth.
16) Top stitch close to the edge. I use the inside edge of my presser foot as a guide.

Love this - I linked to it on my roundup of favorite scrap buster projects. Thanks for sharing - and I love your method of stitching the scraps together and to the flannel at the same time. Quick and easy!